Halo: Prison
by deadmansprice
Summary: This follows sometime after Human-Covenant War. This is a story of a prisoner learning many new things ever since the day he fled the planet Onyx with this crew, especially the strange memories that was not his. The old memories of an old presence whose name was Kaivlin.
1. Prologue

_**Halo: Prison**_

**Prologue**

As the 6'4" tall middle-aged prisoner sat within his cell-block number 34, inside the new prison that was colloquially known to the higher-level ONI personnel as "New Voi Prison", overlooking the recently excavated massive Forerunner artifact on Earth. He was one of the fortunate prisoners to have an open view to the massive artifact. In his orange overalls that complimented nicely to his strong but agile build. In his thirties, he never expected to end up in a prison, after complying with Commander Richard Lash's order to escape back to Earth, apparently due to the breach of the _Cole Protocol_ when he was inside the UNSC Prowler _Dusk_ when he witnessed an entire planet dissolving into innumerable numbers of sentinels, and his shock at the ease and little time it took the Onyx sentinels to ruthlessly slaughter the Covenant fleet that was just victorious moments ago, that had annihilated the UNSC fleet defending the "Planet" Onyx.

His commanding officer Richard Lash had him to prepare the ship for the slipspace travel to Earth. He then wondered about how he began to remember memories that were not his, given by the sight of the unknown number of Onyx Sentinels wiping out the Covenant fleet, he witnessed the strange memories of being on a deck of an unknown ship, watching the small task force of unknown large ships that were larger, but had similar shape to UNSC frigates, and he saw one of the ships shooting the similar round to MAC, but more in a blue beam formation, as though desperate to blind, if not destroy one of the massive ships which similarly resembled the Covenant-control planetoid _High Charity_. He saw innumerable amounts of ships clearly of Forerunner design that seems to match with the Forerunner buildings, move out of the ship, like the pollens exploding out of the flower, and destroyed the unfortunate ship that was firing at it.

This memory lasted for a short moment before the jump. He looked around and noticed none of the crew member experienced such, only he as he was standing by the window that allowed him to see and witness the space battle of Onyx where Sentinels wiped out Covenant fleet with ease. He noted these sentinels took on similar formation as the unknown number of small ships that swarmed around unfortunate ship that fired back in his memory. He looked at those strange memories and noted the small ships that were complement of these massive ships that had similar look to the _High Charity _Which was the seat of power for the Covenant, clearly resembled the Forerunner design, which he guessed these huge ships as well as their smaller ships that came out of the huge ships were part of the Forerunner Empire.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

This memory remained prominent within this prisoner when the female prisoner in the next cell on his right called out his name "Mark, how are you these days? Had fun with us innies?" she said in a provocative tone to push Mark into yelling at her in a tone of the voice on his pro-UNSC stance and insult her insurrectionist affiliation. It did harm him and almost destroyed his career in a similar manner to Cole's career similarly taking downturn due to Lyrenne Calista. Mark was rather sensitive to these topics. He just remained quiet, with the sad weary look. That look had silenced his ex-girlfriend and as she looked around, other prisoners in their cells looked at her with an angry look, even her Insurrectionist friends who would've supported her only looked upon her with shame and anger. His ex-girlfriend saw him for the first time in 15 years, disbelieving his recent actions, and believing them either fraudulent or propaganda by the UNSC possibly to have insurrectionist worlds to rejoin them as fellow prisoners affiliated with Insurrectionists who told her this ten years ago, had cited their sources to come from a UNSC.

Mark's only response tempered with weary, sad tone "Nothing new… It would be nice if someone could already shoot my head in." Which one of the Insurrectionist prisoners said "'Mandy, don't be hard on your ex. Just leave him alone. He evacuated rest of us, despite he was in our territory. We didn't believe the stories about him either, when he arrived. Didn't believe him when he warned us and we didn't listen 'till then. That was when we were readying our ships to destroy his fleet that he requested us to allow him and his forces to land peacefully anyway. Seeing no threats was made by the commander of UNSC Fleet _Dawn's Light_, nor any of his ships were getting ready to fire on us. Some of our strategists looking at the pattern of the ships noted they were not here to attack us but seemed to be running from something, so we allowed him to land his forces here. In three hours, that was when his super-carrier attacked one of his own UNSC ships that was incoming as our initial reports stated.

We were confused until we heard his open broadcast, "Shit, we have the flood incoming! Triangulate upon UNSC _Hammer of Thor_ and destroy this threat. We may have purged the naval database but I think the cleaning team has been infected!" Which we immediately saw on the star maps that his small fleet was firing upon the incoming ship. It was bizarre and we were about to investigate the possibility that the well-known Co. Mark was sympathetic to our cause until we saw the covenant cruiser on a collision course to our planet, which was unusual. It was when he settled our forces among us, entrenching. And we saw his reasoning when the damaged covenant ship that looked partly out-of-place, with bits of brown covering the areas…We realized it was Flood infected, and it was our first time seeing the sick bastards, but we could see on the UNSC troops' faces, they perspired, looking nervous, and they were _actually scared. _And they unusually shared weapons with us. I .. I won't go any further"

Which another prisoner added to his short tale "Hedy's right, I was there when the Flood arrived and already, they began to infect everyone they could find. We saw _High Charity _in the skies but it just ignored us and kept moving towards Earth. I was there for the several weeks, and Hedy here almost got infected on the godforsaken planet right before we finished evacuating civilians and began to evacuate our troops. One of my Marines sacrificed himself to save this guy, despite him being universally wanted for his crimes. Hedy was important as he led the Insurrectionist forces with us as we evacuated the civilians. He could see we were unwilling to bombard this planet, even though we could've done it. I'd say the Great War had changed all of us. We do prefer facing Covenant than to face the Flood. Our commander, Mark now suffers from the physiological trauma . He kept trying to save as many as he could, even them Innies. We don't know what happened to him but he was one of few dozens survivors when we took him in from planet Argos two years ago." Hedy looking at the prisoner who replied "Wait, Daniel, did you say Argos? That was one of our worlds, we had no signal, what happened? Did you guys bombard it?" Which Daniels replied "No, we came when there was distress signal, we were skeptical but answered this signal, and then we saw it was not falsified and the problem was far worse than we thought. We had to evacuate as many as we could as the Flood had overrun most of the planet… And your friends there kept begging Mark to bombard this planet. He just kept evacuating until the reports were given that there was no more to evacuate, as rest of the people are lost cause. Mark was anguished but gave his word and ended up bombarding Argos completely, killing hundreds of thousands. I could see on the deck he was looking weary, with more conscience on his head. He looked far worse when the Flood hit here, and had infected city of Voi before being glassed by the Elites."

Hedy nodded "I heard about that…" They continued to talk for some time. While Amanda was shocked, hearing these things, and seeing the friendly look between Hedy and Daniels, as though they were brothers despite being on the opposite sides, she looked to Mark and she said quietly "I'm sorry, babe…"

Mark remained quiet during their conversations as he remembered looking to the City of Voi that was recently bombarded. It had signs of battles and Mark remembered that day he was almost infected by the Flood when he was with the Marines in Voi. It was when he heard, not through his ears, but his mind, _Shaping sickness…? On Erde-Tyrene? How did the Shaping Sickness come to Erda? _He remembered the sight of flood-controlled Covenant cruiser crashing near city of Voi, and then _High Charity_ in orbit, moving as fast towards the _Portal_ which the presence within him said _So you were fighting the Covenant. Not the Forerunners, but unlike us, you have won this Human-Covenant war. This is nothing compared to the great terrible conflict that spanned over hundreds of thousands star systems a hundred thousand years ago. The one you called the Flood, we have called them Shaping Sickness. The worst threat that had pushed us to take Forerunner's star systems closest to ours, and the Shaping Sickness was far worse than the Forerunners. Our Political and Morale Commander of all human forces, Yprin._

The presence showed Mark the memory of the tall bullish woman. He was surprised to see her in the power-amour, although without a helmet, that looked so similar to the Spartans that he knew of, although the design was more fitting to Yprin's curves _We were fighting two-fold war, and I was Lance Admiral of Erda's Core Defense Fleet and I have faced both Forerunners and the Shaping Sickness. We have survived both, and managed to keep the data on the Shaping Sickness. However, we fought the Forerunners as well and they were unaware that our reasons for taking these worlds irrationally was due to the Shaping Sickness infecting so many of our worlds. We needed more worlds for our people, and we ended up killing far more than I would've liked.._ The presence within him felt sad, weary and regretful. _My people continued to believe in creating many souls, most of them, but after my experiences, almost getting infected and seeing horrors at the forefront, I had stopped believing in the gods, and astrology… What a damned waste of time… My advice to you, young man, is don't waste time thinking and believing in the false gods that my people believed in, and astrology… don't think about using it. Nothing but the stupid waste of time filled with superstitions._

Mark could not believe the presence and he whispered to the presence "I find it impossible to believe that you were once a human being like me-"_Not like you. Your people have the same black skin as my own people but we were bigger, taller, and stronger. Your Spartans have the same strength as our people, it seems for the past hundred thousand of years, that our species have changed so much, I no longer recognize it although your people were similar to my people. I suppose this is what the Librarian, of the Lifeshapers had promised me, so long ago…_ The voice was again, quiet, causing Mark to wonder and he whispered to himself quietly. "A hundred thousand years, huh?" The voice did not respond to this question.

Mark remained seated as he looked back at the first memory as he looked over to the Portal. He looked at the memory of the unfortunate ship. _Thuron-class Heavy Prime Cruiser_ The old memory said. _Thirty-five kilometres long, it was akin to a huge gun, I suppose similar to your UNSC frigates that sport.. what do you call it? MAC cannons. A gun that was an answer for the infamous dreaded Forerunner Fortress-class behemoths. As I see UNSC had survived against technologically superior Covenant's fleet of few dozen ships out of five hundred that were destroyed by one man's sacrifice, a small price that wiped most of the ships according to the reports made by your Spartan hero, known as John-117. The entire fleets of five hundred Covenant ships at full strength are nothing but paperweight rabble. Our interstellar empire was far more advanced than the Covenant aliens, and our ships could wipe them out, at the same rate that Covenant had been known to easily destroy your ships and yet we dreaded the Fortress-class behemoths as each Fortress-class vessels had the might of an entire fleet, and the Prometheans were known to use it to great and terrible effectiveness, as though as we were nothing but mice facing their imminent death by being devoured by a mighty snake. Rare but terrifyingly effective, which is why Thuron-class Heavy Prime Cruiser was needed to combat the great and terrible Fortress-class behemoths._

Mark looked at the memories of Thuron-class Heavy Prime Cruisers, and indeed, they looked similar to the UNSC frigates, but they were much bigger, and as the memory indicated, it was thirty-five kilometres long, and it sported far more armor, covering even the front of the ship, making the front of the ship akin to the Marathon-class cruisers, with additional plating around the front, akin to the front of a pistol, with the sharp point head of the bullet at the tip of the exit whilst the back half of the ship corresponded with the UNSC Paris Heavy Frigate although more geometric in design and that ship had far superior energy shielding and the Thuron-class Heavy Cruisers had many turrets emplacement that fired plasma that acted in the same manner as the heatseekers. Mark noted in this particular memory, that the Fortress-class vessels looked like they had a capacity to fire a very powerful laser, and had hundreds if not thousands of guns, and he wondered in this case, how is it that the Fortress-class vessels were not using their lasers or their guns, seemingly preferring to use what the memory called, Forerunner picket cruisers to do the job onto the unfortunate Thuron-class Heavy Prime Cruisers.

The memory said _These Thuron-class Heavy Prime cruisers you're seeing here were prototypes. It was a necessary sacrifice. A tactic, if you will, to test the prototypes as our later Thurons were more effective in dealing with the Fortress-class vessels. It was to feed the Forerunners the confidence, and let them underestimate the strength of the later Thuron-class Heavy Prime Cruisers. Indeed, increased confidence so often leads to the mistakes that can be exploited. That was one factor that brought us time during Human-Forerunner Wars, although this tactic ultimately became useless during the later stages of the war._

The presence within Mark noted his curiosity about the memories he had. Mark then asked the presence, as though as he was addressing an ONI "Name and rank? And what is your purpose for being here?" He couldn't help it as he was used to addressing the ONI operatives this way as all ONI operatives did when one met another in their respective missions/ONI locations such as CASTLE base in the planet Reach. _Ah, your way of greeting a newcomer, is it? very well, my name is Kaivlin, Lance Admiral of Erda's Core Fleet. And one of the last survivors of Admiralty. As my purpose for being here, it wasn't really my choice…_.

Mark noted the tone of the inner voice and not reply. As this was still afternoon, in the New Voi Prison, Mark slowly laid down on the floor, in a fetal position that indicated other prisoners to lower their voices while conversing. It was understood among the prisoners, which Hedy looked at Amanda, Mark's ex-girlfriend. "Just don't interrupt him… UNSC and us innies tried our best to help him. I think he's beyond help now, and I believe that's due to the tragedies that occurred in the evacuation and from what I heard from Daniels on planet Argos." While they understood Mark had Psychological trauma, they never knew what happened to Mark on the planet Argos.

As Mark perspired and closed his eyes, slowing his breath, as his heart beat faster as he never got over the events thanks to the Flood and his inability to save others, it was the only beginning as he ended up being dragged further into the old memories of the old presence within him.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Kaivlin's memory 1#_

A hundred and ten thousand years ago, during the time of the Great Sadness, in a month of Tebetum, Kaivlin was running, breathing heavily. He wore green-black armor, which covered all of his body. His blue visor was geometrically rectangle spreading across his face. His armor was thick, seemingly made of titanium itself. There was a small pack behind the armor that merged with his suit. It was useful, with the energy shielding being flexible, covering all over his body as an extra layer unlike the bubble-like shields utilized often by many warriors, with only the select groups possessing the armor like his, as the technology needed to create such armor with the advanced energy shielding was very expensive, and only the alliance with the San'Shyuum made this possible, as the recent research had advanced armor like Kaivlin's. As of now, there is a current research in refining the techniques to create armor so the Central Charum Command can create variants of the armor or mass produce it to all human forces. Some say, this was to prepare for the eventual war against the Forerunners if the need should come to it.

Kaivlin looked behind himself, and pulled out the black intricately designed pistol, from the upside down holster attached to the lower part of the right side of his chest-plate. He then aimed the pistol to fire blindly at the back, at the darkness filled with some glowing green eyes in the long street corridor. The pistol's holo-sight appeared on top of the pistol, but he did not wait for it to light up, not looking back and immediately fired various needle-like incendiary rounds. There were loud, shrill hellish screams, followed by the crackling sounds followed by the smells of the burnt flesh, yet the voices did not stop.

This prompted Kaivlin to keep running, for it didn't take long that the shadows were broken by the armies of the dead bodies, decomposing, filling the air with the disgusting decay of rot. They were throwing rocks and some of them used training assault rifles to pepper him with bullets. His shields were draining at a fast rate. It wouldn't be long before he would be wounded, vulnerable to infection, especially to Shaping Sickness.

Like a pack of hunters, the Sickness came after him, not caring if they were wounded, and left their own dead behind as they converged on him, only slowed down by the incendiary effect. All the bodies acted in concert, as if directed by the puppeteer to move the decayed puppets after Kaivlin. They all spoke with one voice "Give up running and surrender yourself to us." And "Why run? Why not join us and share the unity among us?" while the speech were littered with the hellish, tormented screams of the lost souls, seemingly abandoned by the Gods which he no longer believed in, they were grinding to Kaivlin's ears, as well as terrifying. It was as if a single presence, like an evil god wanted to devour him.

Kaivlin himself noted that those infected with the Shaping Sickness had total control over their bodies, and whatever the original minds that once inhabited these bodies were now either dead or absorbed by the Sickness. Those things terrified him far more than death, as being infected by the Sickness meant fate far worse than death.

Finally, Kaivlin could see the light of the stars at the exit, after long run from the underground traffic corridor. He then found himself at the end of the cut-off bridge, with the large building concrete-like rectangular building with four pyramidal long pylons at the right side, which the soft-light décor dotted the building, accompanied by the intricate designs of the light, similar to the lines on the old computer plastic-silicon-based designs that once existed several thousands of years ago, or so they taught him when he was in high school, at the distance that once served as a bank, causing him to cease firing for a brief moment, and then he turned around, prepared for his end, but determined to bring some of them down with him to death, he rose his arms and gripped his pistol, Three rounds left in the magazine, his helmet's HUD indicated on the bottom right corner. He aimed his pistol at the darkness, which didn't take long before the infected corpses spread out into the open from the tunnel.

There were great variations among them, and humans weren't only the ones, and Kaivlin perspired, nervous. Seeing them, everything slowed down for a mere second, which Kaivlin fired his last three rounds. The three rounds went three ways, into the infected crowd spreading outside the tunnel. The first round moved across the space, coming into contact with the first infected that ran towards him, causing the flames to burst on the infected corpse, burning it away into ashes, with the effects spreading to other individuals who were not armored, which then the infected warriors that followed after the ashes were hit by the second round. The second round had no effect on their shields, which the third round barely the infected four-legged creatures.

Kaivlin dropped his now-useless pistol dimming indicating of its lack of ammunitions, and he noticed one of the large beasts with massive tentacles with the bulb at the end threw the whip akin to a huge punch being thrown at him. Kaivlin noted this was the infamous whip used by the Sickness, which were unusually strong enough to break the bones and shatter some of the concrete, and quite often, they were usually directed to the face.

Kaivlin quickly raised both of his arms crossing them to cover his face. The whip impacted, forcing his arms to hit his face. It was as if his flesh was being whipped, and the force of the whip was so strong that it pushed Kaivlin off the floor, sending him flying. He screamed at the impact and at the pain. As he flew, he opened his arms, as soon as he felt that he was flying, he released both of his arms, and despite his terror and pain, he felt joy of a young reckless man briefly as he flew until he crashed into the building violently, creating a large impact hole. His shields almost depleted, and yet Kaivlin noticed he flew across a great distance, unknowingly taking the advantage of the whip.

Kaivlin managed to stand up, even though it took him great efforts to do so. His shields were depleted, and he prepared to run, knowing some of the animals shaped by the Sickness can jump across the great distance.

He was stopped when overhead, a familiar roaring noise of a bomber could be heard from a hundred metres away, and it didn't sound good. No bomber should be so low or close, unless they were damaged. This prompted Kaivlin to run fast, and because of a pause, the living corpses were getting ready to leap across the great distance, and to Kaivlin's relief, he realized it would be a while before the creatures could finally manage to get to him.

It was then in a few seconds, the loud roaring of the bomber caused him to turn his head around as he ran and see the sharp-arrow like black wide bomber, which was clearly damaged, scrape the top of the building which Kaivlin was just standing by, crash into the street tunnel. The dying bomber did further damage by exploding, with the fire spreading quickly. Kaivlin realized the bombs carried by this Raptor-class bomber had a strong reputation of causing large-scale destruction, in which he wasted no time turning to his left, seeing a wide street path, realizing that he will still be killed, even as his shields recharged to full if he did not move quick, and ran as fire spread to the dying bomber's bombs causing them to explode not soon after, causing even bigger explosion. He ran as the bright dreadful explosion spread, and at one point, it was close to Kaivlin, and he focused on the street path, as the parts of the bomber flew past him. The new shield flickered sometime and then recharged again. The pieces only did the minimal damage to his energy shields, but the explosion had drained it down to half. When the explosion ceased, he turned around, and saw the tunnel was sealed in, but he turned around and decided to run, wanting to put more distance between him and the Sickness.

Kaivlin did not stop running, until he ran into the open street which immediately illuminated at his presence, seemingly unaware of Kaivlin's current situation, where he looked to his right and left in the dimly illuminated town. He realized he was at the center of the town, and may have run there without thinking. Kaivlin muttered, as he was perspiring, breathing heavily. He stopped for a small break. He could run farther as he was one of the most physically fit of the humans this age but he felt like stopping. His heart beating nervously and he looked backward. There was nothing, but darkness, and the roaring could be heard, which meant they were coming closer.

He feared nothing, and was feared by many, even the Forerunners, for he was one of few people that Forerunners respected and feared. He was a hulking presence, and was one of the strongest humans, but also had good luck, known as the Mountain of Luck, by his friends and warriors who served under him. He feared no one, not even the Forerunners themselves. However, what scared him the most was the Shaping Sickness. He had lived for four hundred years. He had been at the peak of his youth for a long time, like many humans. He experienced a lot of things; he became stronger, and more tactically cunning, as he was very good with ground and space tactical planning, as well as strategies. And he was learning from Yprin on the importance of human lives, and how to use his warriors' talents, which he viewed her as a mother-like figure since his own mother was killed by the accidental bombardment during the civil war that occurred between the colonies four hundred years ago on a minor dispute that broke into Outer Orion Rim Civil War between the rebels and the Charum Council.

Despite Kaivlin's long life, he had no experience or had not seen anyone so terrifying as the Shaping Sickness. They terrified him far more than anything. Anomaly to all life, and the studies on the Shaping sickness, and what they revealed from the dead infected individuals did not help. The data on their DNA and on their cells revealed the Shaping Sickness could infect anyone and they were extremely adaptive, making Kaivlin doubt the scientist team led by Yprin could find the cure, believing they were chasing after the unfound dreams. The way the Shaping Sickness infects any organisms, especially what they had done to the Pheru and then the human and San'Shyuum handlers were next. He was terrified at the way the Shaping Sickness infects anyone. So extremely effective and cunning, as if Shaping Sickness itself had a sentient mind which is may be possible, as Kaivlin noticed the Sickness got more intelligent after infecting and absorbing individuals… terrifying and he did not want to be infected by them.

Kaivlin began to move fast, to the right, not stopping again for the break as the destroyed bomber only gave him more time to get away from the Sickness, he looked up to the night sky, and saw the twenty kilometers long wedge-shaped with tri-scythe at the back of the ship Sabretooth-class carrier which Kaivlin's helmet identified as _Brilliant Illumination of thousand suns _firing everything she had at the oncoming luxury vessel which looked like it had the biomass of those infected by the Sickness. He saw the oval-shaped vessel littered with the geometric designs with the faint blue light emitting from the belly of the ship, like of the great whale-like creatures whose belly was illuminated with the light in a distant world of Juan Faun found at the southern outer rim of Orion Arm of this galaxy.

To Kaivlin's relief, the luxury ship was exploding right before it was about to ram into the _Brilliant Illumination of thousand suns_, but to his horror, the luxury ship rained down the globs of the Shaping Sickness, which he muttered a swear word. He looked for the armory, any weapon to use, and then he mentally commanded the square HUD minimap located on the top right through thought and will, but he was also mentally linking his helmet to the ship, keying in his serial number: 45L-4ECF/KO-7 as he ran towards to the helipad to his left, which is on the groundside.

As there was no response, he looked around, having gone to the helipad and he kept hearing roars in the distance, and to his detriment, he realized the illuminated town can track his movements, and can be utilized by the Sickness and likely, the globs of Sickness that were raining from the destroyed luxury vessel will do the chasing as he had no doubts that those infected by the Shaping Sickness can communicate over great distances, through telepathy despite that it is evidenced that they do not use communications technology at all, which is likely that the Sickness is but a singular sick, evil entity, a controller taking delight in infecting and misery. Worse than the Harlequin God of Disease whom Kaivlin's tribe had detested, akin to the general consensus's hatred of Gods of Darkness, and Ignorance.

Kaivlin muttered "C'mon, respond!" While he looked around for any helipad ports, while the pods of the Sickness fell, raining like the meteor shower, impacting some of the buildings as it didn't take long for Kaivlin to realize there was no helipad as well as no armory for him to use, and his HUD revealed the base several klicks to the north, notwithstanding the difficulty it will get there which worried him. Finally, it wasn't long before the crew member of _Illumination of the Thousand suns _replied to his broadcast. "Lance Admiral Kaivlin, do you need to get out of here? If that is so, ping us your location" Which he replied impatiently "My coordinates are pinged in, just get me out of here now!"

Kaivlin looked around, and muttered a swear word when the stronger roaring could be heard "You have to be kidding me…" The crewmember replied, "Your low-altitude Reaper-class transport is on the way. Remain where you are, but there may be delays as we have infected vessels attacking us." Which Kaivlin replied, "You better hurry up, on the groundside, I'm being chased by the Sickness!" There was no reply. He looked up and saw the _Illumination_ aggressively respond to another attack from an infected ten-kilometer cylindrical-shaped long assault frigate covered with the biomass of the Shaping Sickness. It kept firing Foward Point Plasma Beam Cannon in hopes to destroy the _Illumination_'s shield and provide the opening into the carrier's armor, where the carrier fired back using hundreds of her turrets, utilizing plasma combined with missiles. The ship's star fighters danced around the assault frigate, striking it from multiple angles whilst the bombers dropped their payload on the frigate.

Due to this aggressiveness of the response, the frigate didn't last long, and Kaivlin witnessed all of it, but he snapped out of the reverie when the roars got closer, causing him to look around quickly on the groundside, and his helmet adapted to the night vision. He pulled out the combat knife from the holster attached to his armor on the left calf of his leg. Glancing around, he took on a combat stance, determined, ready to go down if need be, but also ready to activate his armor's self-destruction device should he be overwhelmed and at risk of infection.

Like a hunter of old, he paced on top of the helipad, suppressing his fear, whilst arousing his courage and rage. It wasn't long before the living corpses found him, and like an angry mob, they marched towards Kaivlin. Instead of the chants, there were animalistic roars, and yet like the mobs, they demanded, but with a single infinitely terrifying voice out of thousand mouths, they demanded him to surrender, to surrender his body and mind to them.

Even though Kaivlin had stopped believing in the Gods, he still believed in souls, like any humans. It was as if they were demanding Kaivlin to give up his soul to the Shaping Sickness, as though they were the followers of Khonsu, the God of Sickness and Decay pressuring Kaivlin into allowing him to be infected just to join their cult. Kaivlin muttered "Madness! This is madness." It was as though he was living in a nightmare again.

Finally some of them sprinted towards Kaivlin, which he backed out slowly in order to give him space. He began by slashing deeply, slicing the arms and heads off the living infected corpses whilst dodging the arms, and heads. He attacked viciously as though as he was drowning, which seemed literal as he looked like he was thrashing with a knife in the middle of the sea of the dead.

After cutting down the fifth living corpse, he noticed the corpse holding a primitive shotgun at blank range. And a second later, he was shot, sending him flying out of the helipad and crashing into one of the trees nearby. His energy shield at the 75% of its power, it would not take long until his shields get fully depleted.

Kaivlin did not waste time standing up again, and took a fighting stance, and glanced both sides as the living corpses jumped off the helipad and began to advance towards him like the group of sabretooths. His breathing grew heavy, panting as though nervous. The sounds were growing to louder to the hellish level, which he perspired. For him, it was not a good place as it reminded him again that he was in living hell, controlled by the Shaping Sickness.

It wasn't long before the heavily armed lower-winged low-altitude Reaper-class transport arrived and subsequently burned through the helipad, and then unleashing the salvoes of missiles at the entrance towards the back, leaving the burnt pieces of the Sickness everywhere, mercifully sparing Kaivlin's ears of those screams, with the sounds of lasers. The broadcast came through "Lance Admiral! Get in!" Which the transport turned to Kaivlin's direction and it's nose was in his direction. The transport's twin laser turrets controlled by the R.I, emplaced on the bottom of the large wings fired at the helipad, whilst transport moved close where the circular door to the transport's belly was opened, revealing the blue light. Kaivlin did not waste time running into the blue light.

As he ran into the blue light, he was feeling relieved as he was immediately levitated into the transport. It didn't take long for him to go into the armory, which the door closed immediately. He looked around and saw there were few warriors and he noticed on his HUD mini-map that the transport was lifting off, departing for the carrier _Illumination of thousand suns. _One of the warriors looked at him. He was shorter than Kaivlin, and younger. He was wearing his full power armor similar to Kaivlins, only that it was newly minted, as compared to Kaivlin.

He then asked the Lance Admiral "Lance Admiral!" With that, he stood at brisk attention, and saluted the Lance Admiral through chest pound. "Permission to speak freely, sir?" Which the Kaivlin noted this warrior was notably young, very young and his helmet had identified him as Warrior, Rank: Primacy. Barely out of his training and newly recruited, it seems he just finished his twenty years of training. Based on the records, this new warrior had just finished the training in the military academy in D'jankovin Academy in Hvaskal'din, within one of the great capital cities of Erde-Tyrene. And now he was attached to the fleet _Purgation Flames _Which Kaivlin was in command of.

Another warrior, older with the similar power armor to to the young warrior, although older and has multiple dents. walked towards to the young warrior and yelled "Shaddup noob! You are not to disturb the Lance Admiral or ask for request when spoken to!" He said in a gruff tone, belied by annoyance and he turned to Kaivlin whilst respectfully chest-saluting him, in an apologetic respectful tone "I'm sorry, Lance Admiral, This young warrior, Janovan did not mean any disrespect"

Kaivlin observed the older warrior. He looked slightly older than this young warrior. His skin was tanned with a hint of white, with the multiple scars on the right side of his face. He had a clean-shaven beard, with a small nick on his chin. He was as tall as the young warrior. His helmet automatically identified him as "Warrior-class, Rank: First-class Captain" His name popped up on the right side of his head when the warrior was speaking.

Kaivlin nodded "That's fine, Langhian. Thank you though…" And then turned his head to the young warrior who was already nervous "And you, Janovan, your permission to speak freely is granted"

Janovan nodded, although looking nervous "Lance Admiral, what was it like down here? If you do not mind me asking, sir" which Kaivlin perspired at the memory "Far worse than the Outer Rim Civil War… Far worse than the massacres, every man's worst nightmare come true. Shaping Sickness has already infected this world. This world, Eliwan, is lost."

The transport's Robotic Intelligence announced, within Kaivlin's helmet as well as other warriors"We have now landed in the hanger E14 in Sabretooth-class Carrier _Illumination of thousand Suns_" The transport then moved into the cavernous hanger of the huge ship. Kaivlin, hearing this, moved towards to one of the weapon storage monolith. He placed his hand onto the surface which the white circular light appeared in a form of keypads. He then keyed in the code, which the monolith's hard-light surface dissolved. There was a pistol of the same kind that he used when he was fleeing from the living, infected corpses.

Kaivlin also picked out second pistol of the same kind as he like their effectiveness at pushing those living nightmares away and then he holstered the twin pistols in his armor's holster. Kaivlin then turned around and faced his warriors and gave them a side ways nod twice with the eyebrows closed up before releasing them to normal position. It was widely recognized that Kaivlin's people used such nods like that to mean, "Follow me please" out of hundreds of well known "follow me" gestures used by all humans. The warriors began to follow him, Janovan and Langhian included. He quietly went towards to the circular door, that opened. Kaivlin felt himself levitating gradually down to the floor of the hangar deck of the _Illumination of thousand suns_

He saw the female captain of this ship, which seemed to set his heart on excitement. She was tanned, but had a scar running diagonally across her left eye to her right cheek, a mark that she survived being slashed in the face. She had a prominent thick nose, with the prounounced chin. Her face was slender as indicated by the smooth skin, with pronounced cheeks, with the well-defined chins and She was considered beautiful by many humans, no matter what species they were of. She wore the grey power armour that fitted closely to her hourglass figure, rather than the usual armour considered to be genderless that was generally worn by both sexes in the military. Kaivlin knew her as Vinnevra. She stood at seven feet tall.

She saluted him briskly, with a serious look, as Kaivlin smiled, proud of her, as he believed she would be perfect to be the new Lance Admiral of Erda's Core Fleet but that would have to wait. She was of his own people, coming from same tribe and generally it was considered that Kaivlin's tribe was too warlike and too stupid to be in command, best left as the grunts but Kaivlin and this captain were unusual in that they were IN command and very intelligent. He noted other two assistants with the captain, one female, and one male. They were tall, and they were of different human-species.

Kaivlin's helmet identified the female as the Senior Officer. She had an upside down teardrop face whose almond-shaped eyes were blue, and her cheeks were pronounced, with no shallow features. She may look young and naïve, as she was smiling curtly with the glistening small lips. She wore similar power armor similar to Captain, as her body was banana shaped, although her breasts were prominent, just like the captain's. And she was almost as tall as the captain, which she stood one inch lower than Kaivlin. Kaivlin knew her as Feng Chyou.

The male assistant on the left of the captain was hairless, save for thick bushy eyebrows. Unlike either Kaivlin and his warrior escorts, he was slim, of the small average build that suggests he hasn't taken any exercise for years. He was following after the captain, and kept his eye on Kaivlin. Two small spherical intricate spherical machines hovered around the man, with permanently attached robotic wings on each side, each shaped in the form of the feathers with the faint white light below. Each of these machines had the red circle in the centre serving as the "pupil" Somewhat they unnerved Kaivlin whenever he looks at them as they were rumoured to be the subverted Forerunner robotic intelligence, and if they were true, it is unknown how this man hijacked and controlled these Forerunner robotic intelligences without being detected. As of now, they were quiet.

Captain Vinnevra saw Kaivlin smiling for a brief small moment before his face returned to a well-known constant frowning stone-like face. She internally smiled as she only had been a captain for a year, and already, Kaivlin was proud of her, and how she was…creative with everything she did. He returned the salute "At ease, Captain, what are the reports?" She looked at him, having no idea how to explain to the famous Lance Admiral "Uhh… I'm not sure… but you'll want to come with me to the observation deck." Kaivlin noted that her assistants were looking nervous and sad at same time through their facial expressions and how they were looking down. "Have the ship exit the orbit. I want all ships to re-enter Defense Spear formation. And I want to know what has happened here when I was on the dirt, running from the Sickness"

The male assistant replied "You won't like this" which Feng Chyou added "Officer Eternal Suns is correct, we're not sure how to explain it, sir. We've been trying to contact you, what has happened to your R.I?" Which Kaivlin replied "I initiated it's self-destruction protocol before the Shaping Sickness could get to the last of the firewalls. We need to update it."

Eternal Suns nodded "I will give you Lugal-class R.I. You'll need it." He offered his hand to Kaivlin which he nodded and gripped his hands but careful not to grip it too strong. Eternal Suns muttered various commands, which in a short time, Kaivlin's HUD display came alive. It was a new R.I and the Lugal-class were fairly new. It was as if Kaivlin's power armour gave birth to a new R.I. It spoke within Kaivlin's armour with a female voice "Lugal-class Robotic Intelligence _Light of Aurora _reporting for duty. I am personally assigned to the Lance Admiral of Erde-Tyrene's Core Fleet and a Naval Commander of one-third of all human naval forces." The voice sounded young, and sweet to his ears, as though his own mother was speaking to him when he was but a child. It didn't take long before Kaivlin saw the robotic intelligence appearing in the back of his mind, in a form of a young female human with an hourglass figure. She was considered beautiful in form as she was shaped after his people. With petite features, she was looking back at him with the seemingly human eyes, with the three circles and one half-circles in the place of the pupils.

She was sweetly smiling which reminded Kaivlin of his own great grand-daughter who is currently attending in the Great Archway military academy of the Citadel Charum. He sighed, as eventually, his own family will be facing the Shaping Sickness, just as he has. He was relieved that his wife, his children and their spouses, as well as his grand-children and so on were safely within Erde-Tyrene and her moon, as well as neighbouring planets.

Kaivlin nodded at Eternal Suns thankful for this R.I and then looked to the captain "Alright, take me there and Light of Aurora, read me the current statistic reports." Vinnevra turned around briskly, and began to walk ahead to the lift. The ship continued to vibrate, indicating that the _Illumination of thousand suns_ was still in the combat state, as if like a mountain sabretooth prowling, and fighting against the unnatural sick monsters.

Kaivlin walked after the captain, while Light of Aurora immediately gathered the recent battle reports and she began to hesitate as well, noting the report did not look good. She looked to Kaivlin "Are you sure you want to know, Lance Admiral?" which he replied "Just tell me."

"Very well, Lance Admiral, out of original two hundred ships of the Spearhead battlegroup, only about forty remains, while a hundred and ten are confirmed destroyed, and remaining fifty was taken over by the unknown hostile organism classified as the Shaping Sickness." At this point, Kaivlin had walked into the elevator with his warrior escorts and the captain and her escorts. The lift was circular, and was large, as wide as five metres. And he frowned greatly at the report being displayed in the top right screen in his HUD. Light of Aurora continued "Remaining uninfected Eliwanite forces number in only four Panthera-class Prime Cruisers, followed by Smilodon-class Support Cruisers escorts and one surviving Third-rate station. Rest of the Elanwite Defense Force has been otherwise reported destroyed and/or infected by the hostile organism identified as Shaping Sickness" Kaivlin was sullen, frowning greatly. Langhian shot a good look at Lance Admiral and saw that despite his emotionless stony features, he could see that the Lance Admiral was enraged and saddened at the reports he was receiving.

The elevator stopped moving diagonally, at the command deck that also served as the observation deck. Kaivlin walked immediately towards to the main circular pedestal, while his escorts waited. The captain saw Kaivlin move quickly, which was a well-known indicator that they should stay back. There were a few crew members working, filing in reports, as well as they were working with the ship's various En-class to accomplish their goals.

Kaivlin's R.I, Light of Aurora, took control of the command deck for a brief second and announced as per protocol "At Attention! Lance Admiral Kaivlin has arrived!" which the holographic avatars of the and the crew members immediately stopped doing whatever they were doing, and turned to Kaivlin and saluted, but Kaivlin quickly shouted "At ease! Return to your duties!" which the crew saw the quickness of his reply which indicated that he was worried. They returned to their tasks, and some commented that they were relieved that Kaivlin was uninfected and still alive but expressed their worry about him. The hard-light console appeared before Kaivlin which he keyed in various commands. The north walls of the hexagonal command room began to clear up, becoming glass-like windows.

Kaivlin was shocked, quietened, as he saw burning debris of his task force, and seeing the small numbers of his remaining task force combined with the surviving Elanwite forces combatting the infected ships. Kaivlin muttered "Number of hostile forces? Include the ones that were recently infected" The R.I wasted no time replying "A hundred and fifty to your remaining forty". It also didn't take long for Kaivlin to see so many human corpses, both uninfected and infected by Shaping Sickness, floating in space, among the burning debris of the destroyed ships of both sides.

_End of Kaivlin's Memory 1#_

This memory suddenly ended. Mark began to scream loudly, yet he could not scream in Kaivlin's body. Markm, horrified at the memory, tried to escape his dream-body. It didn't take long before his dream froze, like a computer game freezing, as if he was in a morbid photo.

The memory began to explode, shattered, like a glass building blown apart, and Mark felt like he was drowning, causing him to thrash for life, as though he was in the great watery depths. He saw innumerable images, and the most significant images were of Kaivlin barechested, fighting a human-like alien which Mark assumed to be a Forerunner, and in second image, Kaivlin was gripping the hand of a healthy San'Shyuum whom Mark noted was very unusual, and healthy, as he looked strong, compared to the known San'Shyuum High Prophets who attacked humanity through Covenant forces. This particular San'Shyuum was flanked by the soldiers of his species, while Kaivlin himself was flaked by the same warrior escorts. In third image, Kaivlin was on some sort of a deck which looked like it was an observation deck of a massive ship which Kaivlin had called a _Fortress-class _vessel.

Kaivlin was standing beside the female Forerunner who looked so much like a human, and had infinite beauty. She seemed like she had shown so much empathy to Kaivlin as he stood, as a prisoner. And then the final battle of Charum Hakkor… Mark continued to thrash and scream, feeling like he was drowning, with his brains having a feeling of expanding and exploding.

It didn't take long before Mark pushed himself into reality, where he found himself choking, his throat hurt by his constant screams that resembled that of a drowning. He also found himself lying down, with his upper body raise up. Amanda, Hedy and Daniels looked at him, standing. They were looking worried, and Mark noticed it was nighttime. Hedy replied, "Man, it's time you're up, are you alright? And as we keep telling you, try to forget about the Flood Attack on the planet where we first met, and other planets where our combined UNSC/Insurrectionists forces had to evacuate from" Which Mark nodded "Yeah… but I can't tell you that it still haunts me to this day… I remember evacuating our forces as quick as we could and bombard the planets" Which Hedy nodded "Yes, and you stopped the Flood from taking over entire system." "Not without sacrifices! God help me… I've sacrificed human lives" He said in a sad regretful tone sounding like he would rather sacrifice himself instead. Hedy replied, "That makes it my fault too. But you're too important. You're a good commander, you know? Just relax" Which Mark sighed "Alright, buddy, but I'll have to rest." Hedy nodded and looked at others. He shrugged, not sure what to say. Daniels looked at Mark "Sir? You'll be fine?" His question was directed to him, which Mark nodded "Yeah, I'll be fine" at a tone that Hedy mouthed to others "We should leave him alone" And as complied, all prisoners moved to their respective spaces but Amanda continued to watch him. She sat closer to the prison bars and observed him.

Mark was not aware of this but he remain seated, sweating. Nervous, and he felt so old as well due to this memory. He muttered quietly seemingly to himself but was directly "Kaivlin? Are you in here?" _Yes, you've had your first dream-memory. You call these San'Shyuum Prophets, and they led their Covenant filled with various species and just as like last time, they were technologically superior, although we had alliance later. But today? I am honestly surprised that our kind had won this Human-Covenant War._ Kaivlin mused on this _And these San'Shyuum never have exercised for a long time, as your memories tell me, and they worship Forerunners as gods, and they almost activated those ring-abominations three times, by attempting to force members of our kind into doing it. How different… I actually prefer the original San'Shyuum rather than this foolish generation that have lost their memories and culture!_ Kaivlin was bitter about this, causing Mark to grip his head. Mark also looked into the memories to learn about their languages. He noted that in this first dream-memory, they were speaking in different language, yet he could understand them! It may be because he was inside Kaivlin's body during the first dream-memory.

Kaivlin noticed Mark probing his memories for the old language that Kaivlin once spoke and so he decided to guide Mark like guiding a fish through a stream. With Kaivlin's help, Mark spoke in the old human language quietly "How did you survive the Flood? And how many were lost in the past?" _Through what we knew as the cure at the time, but during the times of Human-Forerunner wars, I was with the Lord of Admirals when he went to speak with the Primordial within the arena of Charum Hakkor, our Citadel._ Mark saw a brief flash of an ugly massive thing imprisoned within the arena. It sat on a massive seat, with the huge four arms, as thick as the large trunks of the trees bound to the sides of the seat by a massive lock. In his seated position, he was taller than the large two-storey house. His hands were covered by the ball-like dome, restraining it greatly, and Mark saw the head. The head was so inhuman, in that it resembled eurypterid with the great barbed tail extending down from the head. It had large numbers of legs.

It's ugly sea scorpion-like head looked at Kaivlin and the Lord of Admirals standing next to him. Mark revulsed at that memory _I know, I also had this same reaction, as did Forthencho, still, we had to speak to this thing._ Kaivlin remarked on Mark's revulsion.

Mark continued to speak in old human language "In that case, Kaivlin, before I fall into another dream-memory. The human-like armoured aliens, what were they? Were they Forerunners?" which Kaivlin replied _Yes, they were. The warrior I faced before the Human-Forerunner wars, was of a great importance I later learned. His name was The Didact although I was not aware of it during those days, assuming he was but a mere Servant-Warrior commanding a group of the warriors who guarded him._

As it was night time. Mark felt the need to sleep yet Kaivlin was curious about the humanity's recent history. _Indulge me, will you? _Which Mark shook his head at the sad old voice. "Only for a time, old ghost, I need to sleep, you know" _Yes, it will take us a few moments. How long did this Human-Covenant War last? _Mark replied "Twenty eight years with us emerging as victors, along with the new Sangheili and some of other speci-" When Amanda replied "ALL of Covenant species except some of their members and the brutes, classified as Jiralhanae as they call themselves and the Yanme'e insectoid bastards so one of my UNSC sources tell me."

Mark was awake once more, surprised that his ex-girlfriend understood the old human language that he was just speaking to his old ghost. Amanda continued on "And so, as we ask you now, who is the one that inhabits your body? Do you know a name?" _Do not tell her of my name. Give her my rank. I wish to know who is the old ghost that lives within your ex-girlfriend, my friend._ Kaivlin asked which Mark nodded and then began to crawl quietly to Amanda and sat down, crossing his legs, and placing his arms to his knees. "You tell me first. You seem to have an old ghost as well, sweet-cheeks" in a cold tone. She looked him fiercely, as she noted he still feels bitter about her ever since their break-ups that ruined Mark's career greatly and also it seemed to have affected him greatly in a very negative fashion. Not wanting this to escalate into the arguments, as she was curious about that. Told by her old ghost, she replied to this question "I'll give you the rank, would that suffice?" Which Mark nodded, for her, that was enough for her "High Countess of Laeria Dawn system" which Kaivlin was embittered, more even so than Mark.

Mark groaned at the miasma of bitterness washing over his head. It was as though he was poisoned. He muttered quietly managing to control the urge to call the bitter ghost by his name while which Mark also had to push Kaivlin away, whilst unknowingly showing Amanda his unconcealed anger which also Amanda interpreted as murderous rage. It was not long before he felt free from the harsh feeling of Kaivlin's poisonous bitterness, followed by a sullen silence _Give her my later rank. Lance Admiral of Erda's Core Fleet and Tactical and Strategic Commander of all Combined Naval forces _Mark then looked at Amanda and spoke quietly "Lance Admiral of Erda's Core Fleet and Tactical and Strategic Commander of all Combined Naval Forces" As though hearing distant but familiar music long since heard, Amanda jerked forward and looked at him "Say again?" "Lance Admiral of Erde-Tyrene's Core Fleet and Tactical and Strategic Commander of all Combined Naval Forces."

Mark was sweating, exhausted himself as trying to hold back Kaivlin's anger took most of his strength. He noticed Amanda was looking down, with her expression showing nothing but regret. Amanda was different for brief second, and she looked like she was taken over, as she held the bars of the prison, sweating. It wasn't long before she uttered the languages of old human words "Kaivlin? Are you in there?" _I don't want to talk to this witch. And I absolutely refuse to. _Mark noted Amanda had sounded different, with the accent similar to Kaivlin's accent. "Yes, Kaivlin's here, but he doesn't want to talk to you. It just feels that he's pretty upset. What was that about?" which Amanda replied "Something similar to my host's breakup, you know that almost ended your career with the ONI" which Mark took a sharp breath in, indicating to her that he is still sensitive to that time. "Don't remind me of that time… and what was your name?" "My name? My Long Name was Alleuran, my true name." _Why is she referring you by her true name instead of her cover name? _Causing mark to repeat the question to the old spirit within Amanda "We are nothing but old, old ghosts… We have fought and lived. Our time is over and yet we are here, alive again, within you, young descendant. What's the point of abiding with our old culture when it has been a hundred thousand years since our great loss? No one will remember us and our way of life anymore."

Mark looked down, "I se-" "Can I speak to Kaivlin directly?" _I WILL not TALK to her! I refuse to! Merely apologizing does not help! _Kaivlin was embittered and withdrew for a while. Mark looked up to Amanda "I'm sorry, but Kaivlin will not"" in an apologetic tone, which she replied "That is fine, he has a good reason for such that happened a long ago" which Amanda took over, and like Mark, she was breathing heavily indicated by the battles of the wills. She muttered in English "Oh God… Now we're stuck with the old ghosts who are similar to us? What the hell? Is this a joke?"

Mark shrugged and then returned to laying down on the floor, and looked hat her "I just don't know. How did you get your old ghost?" Amanda looked at him "I'll tell you in the morning, Mark, I'm pretty tired. You have an idea how tiring it is to take back your own body from the old human spirit, don't you?" Which Mark nodded, and as though satisfied by the answer, she stood up and walked away from him, turning her back as she walked towards to the bed. It didn't take long before she lay on the bed and pulled up the blankets. _Battle of the wills, indeed, Alleuran of the Laeria Dawn was a high countess and had commanded her own fleet, but I was the overall commander of all Combined Fleet. _Mark was wondering at what he meant by Combined and wondered as Kaivlin mentioned earlier, that he was a commander of all human naval forces. _As you are wondering, Combined forces meant all branches of human naval forces and the allied San'Shyuum forces. But that was a long time ago, and they were not like this foolish, weak and misled generation. _Mark was feeling tired, as he spent his much of his mental strength just to push away the poisonous feeling of Kaivlin's bitterness towards Alleuran causing Mark to wonder, if he and Kaivlin were similar and who was more bitter?

Yet Mark felt so exhausted, tired that he decided to lay down again, as he didn't feel comfortable using the bed. He looked around, and noticed Hedy looking at him, and he saw that the old Insurrectionist leader was asleep, sitting down. As he observed, Hedy was not moving, and he was breathing, but the expression that Hedy kept showing, indicated that he was going through nightmares of fighting the Flood, and how an UNSC marine sacrificed himself to save this man. Thinking of the Flood, Mark noted it was very appropriate to call this Shaping Sickness, as the pore-like creatures known to swarm around humans, Sangheili, and other biological creatures in mass numbers to overwhelm the opposition and to open them for taking over the bodies. Mark and Hedy agreed in their conversations that they would be rather facing prison or Covenant than to face the Flood. The parasite was terrifying, especially when they seem to keep coming back. Noting those images, Mark came to the conclusion that Kaivlin had fought the Flood for a long time, and the Forerunners at the same time, thereby making Kaivlin one of few survivors of both wars and Mark wondered how Kaivlin fought the Flood while fending off the Forerunners. _You'll see soon. After all, I was a long-lived human. How short are your days! It makes me depressed at how you humans live to merely a century! Yet it won't be long, I believe, that our species will reach to the peak once, sped up by the discovery of the old Forerunner technologies. And you will know why humans were designated to be Reclaimers by the Forerunners. Not by word you can understand. If you want to know why, you'll have to bear with my memories. _Mark frowned "That first dream-memory was too much! Why can't you tell me?" _No human ever understood the Librarian and the Didact. No words ever will describe that. Not even in a thousand years, therefore you will need to experience it. _Which Mark bitterly replied "Alright, if it means I have to go through these memories, I will. I want to know what made the Forerunners classify us as their Reclaimers." There was no reply from the old ghost.

Mark slowly fell back into sleep on the cold floor, as no one understood why he preferred the floor other than Hedy and the surviving combined UNSC/Insurrectionist forces that survived the numerous attacks from the Flood thanks in part to them taking over entire _High Charity_. It didn't take long before Mark had another shuteye.


End file.
